10 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



Roper, Mrs. Marcellus 11 Kensington Rd., Worcester 



Shaw, Paul A. Boulder Farm. Newton Centre 



Shaw, Robert K. 38 Monadnock Rd., Worcester 



Sibley, Otis 6 Elmwood St., Worcester 



Smith, Dr. C. Morton 437 Marlboro St., Boston 



Snow, Benjamin B. 16 Haviland St., Worcester 



Stone, Miss Margaret 225 Newbury St.. Boston 



Taylor, Mrs. Jan 49 Pearl St., Worcester 



Vance, Miss Pauline H. 8 Boynton St., Worcester 



Warren, Charles H. 1030 Pleasant St.. Worcester 



Whitney, Mrs. H. S. Princeton 



CHECKING UP THE MIGRATION OF BIRDS 



The desire to learn what became of birds that flew south with the 

 approach of cold weather led Audubon — the great American naturalist — to 

 place silver threads about the legs of a brood of phoebes. The following 

 spring he was rewarded by having two of the birds return to nest near the 

 haunts where they learned to fly. 



This occurred early in the nineteenth century, and was the first known 

 case in America of bird banding. Since that time this means of securing 

 information on the movements and life history of migratory birds has been 

 used by many societies, and every fall thousands of birds fly south each 

 bearing a narrow ring, stamped with a number, about one of its legs. 



So valuable is this work, especially with game and insectivorous species 

 of birds, that in 1920 the United States Department of Agriculture took over 

 the experiments being conducted by the American Bird Banding Association, 

 the society's work having outgrown its available resources. Since it is the 

 returns from bird banding that furnish the data desired in this branch of 

 research, it is of prime importance that the methods employed be improved 

 and that the percentage of birds under observation be increased. To assist 

 co-operators in this work, the department has published Department Circular 

 170, Instructions for Bird Banding, which is just available for distribution. 



It is the plan of the Biological Survey of the department, which is super- 

 vising the bird-banding work, to advance this method of research along two 

 principal lines: first, the banding of fledglings as formerly practiced; and 

 second, the systematic trapping and banding of adult birds. As the banding 

 of fledglings has the advantage of affording valuable information on the 

 ages of birds, the survey wishes to encourage these activities, but it desires to 

 lay special emphasis on the added value of the systematic trapping of adults. 



With the establishment of a well-connected chain of trapping stations 

 throughout the United States and Canada, regular "returns" are confidently 

 expected by department specialists with reports of retrapping birds that had 

 been banded at the original and other stations. Data thus aff"orded are 

 already indicating the exact lines of migration of individual birds, the speed 

 of travel, and innumerable items of interest, many of which have a direct 

 bearing upon the study of life histories and the administration of the Migra- 

 tory Bird Treaty Act with which the department is charged. 



The department issues bands of two types to co-operators in the work. 



